Stranded Mittens - Chrysanthemums

I've been bitten quite severely by the stranded colourwork bug recently and these mittens were the culprit! I saw them on Knitty when they were published and just knew I had to try them.

 I'm not proficient at knitting with a different colour in each hand with DPNs, though I do manage it with longer straight needles, so the first mitten was an agony of pick one colour up and knit a stitch, pick the other colour up and knit a stitch (especially on the cuff). In addition to this , although I thought I was spacing my stitches well enough, once I finished, I found the work was puckered and that the floats were, in general, not long enough.

There is a clear improvement between the first and second mitten and they're lovely and soft and warm to wear. In addition, they go perfectly with my Beret de Printemps, though this was not intentional!
I love the traditional Scandinavian palm, thumb and striped cuff, but I'm not sure I'd bother with the picot edge again.

Details:
Yarn: Artesano Alpaca 4ply
Needles: 2.25mm DPNs
Pattern: Chrysanthemum by Heather Desserud, published in Knitty, Winter 2010

Since knitting these, I've finished a second pair of stranded mittens that are Christmas knitting, so not for blogging until January, and am contemplating a stranded colourwork jumper....

Little Cardi's

This is (barring something strange happening) my last post from a baby-free zone... and possibly my last post for a while.

In addition to all the baby gifts and little bits and pieces, I've also been working on a couple of more substantial baby knits.

First up is Snug (ravelry link), a little hooded jacket:

The yarn is Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in Oak, knitted on 6mm needles. As the baby is going to be growing rapidly over the warm summer months, I'm hoping that this will do instead of a proper jacket at first. It's very stretchy and lovely and warm, and will hopefully see lots of wear.

The other project is a Drops Baby Jacket:

I've been working on this for ages due to yarn availability issues, but finally got it off the needles last week, crocheted the edging and blocked it. The last step was putting on the buttons yesterday.

The yarn is Artesano Alpaca 100% Baby Alpaca 4 ply, knitted on 2.25mm needles. I knitted the 6-9 months size as I wanted the baby to get a decent amount of wear out of this top, considering the amount of work that went into it!

The only modification I made was to crochet an edging all the way round the piece, rather than pick up and knit an edging onto the neck-line alone.

Both of these projects have an unusual end-on construction which seems to work really well for baby projects where shaping isn't too much of an issue.

Posh Mittens

This project was inspired by a picture I saw in a magazine ages ago and ripped out as a reminder.
I think that the picture was in Scottish Field and I was struck by the wonderful colours and cosy look. The mittens in the advert were cashmere and cost nearly £50, to which my miserly Scottish heart responded - 'I bet I could knit them for a fraction of that'.


The photograph was good enough that I was able to pick out the stranded colourwork pattern and make a chart. I looked around for an appropriate yarn and immediately fell for the Artesano Alpaca 4 ply that Katherine had in stock at K1 yarns. My first swatch didn't work out at all well for the pattern so I held the yarn double and tried again - perfect.


The mitten pattern was entirely improvised with some ribbing and shaping on the arms for a snug fit and a gusseted thumb. The cuffs reach my elbows for warmth under 3/4 sleeve jumpers. I think that I used 3.75mm needles.


This was my first real go at stranded colourwork using more that two yarns and I'm pleased with how it turned out. If I knit these again, I might shorten the floats at the back by wrapping them with the working yarn. My gauge isn't quite that of the mittens in the advert so the pattern looks slightly different and my colours are all slightly more vivid so together look sharper, but on the whole I'm happy with them.

Quick Knits

Happy New Year.

I hope that you all had a good Christmas and New Year. I had a house-full of guests for Christmas which was lively and great fun, then a very quiet New Year, just me and the resident radiologist from the 27th until we went back to work on the 5th January. Bliss - and a pretty productive knitting period too.

I finished off the February Lady Sweater which is now blocked and just waiting for buttons, but more on than next time (or once I find the buttons); I also designed, started and finished a pair of stranded colourwork mittens that I'd been thinking about for a while and which are currently blocking. Finally, I produced a couple of quick knits.

Which were:
A second knitted bangle in one of my favourite colours. The bangle core came from Asda and the knitted cover is left-over Arwetta superwash sock yarn (from my Vinnland socks). I cast on 68 stitches on 2.5mm needles, knitted a couple of rows in stocking stitch, then the bulk of the rows in 2x2 rib, a further row in knit and bound off. After that, it was a simple task to sew it over the bangle. I have a second bangle like this still waiting for a jacket - I just haven't decided on the yarn yet...


A knitted iPod nano cosy for my Christmas gift from the RR. Knitted in Artesano 100% Alpaca 4 ply, in the round on 2mm needles. This yarn could easily become one of my very favourites. It feels wonderful - soft and ever so slightly fuzzy, has good yardage and isn't too expensive. If I could contemplate knitting a jumper in 4 ply, this would be the yarn. Hmmm - might need to investigate the DK version!


Cast on 32 stitches, 2x2 rib for 10 rows then stocking stitch until it was about 4 rows longer than the iPod. Used kitchener stitch to graft the end together. It's a good snug fit so it won't slip off too easily and let my new toy get scratched in my pocket.